Our J/120 will be dropped off in Palm Beach next week and then we'll be spending a week with a few friends making our way to Key West before sailing across the Gulf to Corpus Christi. Our boat is not exactly made for the Keys with 7' draft, but I'd like to make the most of it with friends that have never been cruising before.

Where can we anchor? From my research I don't think we have a lot of options, but hopefully I've missed some. I've identified No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne, Marathon, Bahia Honda, and Key West of course. I've been to the last 3 a few years ago. Am I missing something else with enough water? Is there another (better?) option than Bahia Honda between Marathon and Key West.

Man you're push'n it. You can just squeeze in Ceasers creek. Pull up between red #20 and # 18 and put out a stern and bow anchor to stay out of the way. Rodriqez has 8 to 10 feet a way's off of it, but it's not protected. I make the run from Miami to Boot key as an over nighter sometimes. Hawk channel is clearly lit at night. Just go from blinker to blinker. I've anchored on the south west side of Tavenier key in 10 feet of water on fairly calm nights. Channel number 5 between lower matecumbe and Long Key is a good anchorage. It show's 7 at some points in the channel. But that is at the lowest of the low tides in a year of course. I anchor there a lot with 6 foot and still had plenty of water below.

I would def. go for Channel number 5 at Matecumbe. You can get in there. Give red # 2 a wide berth and run that line along green #1 and stay in 10 feet. You'll see some one else anchored over on that side for sure.

Sorry, I get obsessed with these questions sometimes. If I was showing people a nice trip. I would make from Key Biscyane to Ceasers creek, and anchor like I said, on the north side of the channel between those markers. You'll get waked, but you'll be out of the way. Then I would make for Channel number 5. You can get in there for sure, and then on down to boot key etc. etc. That will break up the trip and give them a good look at the key's. Bring Mosq. net and coils for Ceasers. Those coils really keep the bugs at bay if there happen to be any that night. You won't have bugs at channel number 5 and so on. Hope I helped.

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